Issue 20, 2023

Chemically recyclable fluorescent polyesters via the ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides and anhydrides

Abstract

Polymers rarely possess the desired properties for their intended application; additives (plasticizers, flame-retardants, stabilizers, colourants) modify their physical properties to those needed in the final product. Colourants are particularly detrimental to recycling technologies, since they cannot be removed by reprocessing; reprocessed plastic retains color from the original material. We have prepared single-component, coloured polymers by adding chromophore monomers to epoxide-anhydride ring-opening copolymerization reactions; chromophores need only be added at dopant levels to give highly coloured materials with little change in properties from the base polymer. We have depolymerized the polymers to the parent acid/alcohol and have remade colourless polymer from reformed epoxide and anhydride. Our approach paves the way to using dopant-level monomers to access recyclable polymers with dial-a-property tunability.

Graphical abstract: Chemically recyclable fluorescent polyesters via the ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides and anhydrides

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 2 2023
Accepted
02 4 2023
First published
17 4 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Polym. Chem., 2023,14, 2478-2484

Chemically recyclable fluorescent polyesters via the ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides and anhydrides

T. B. Young, O. G. Guppy, A. J. Draper, J. M. Whitington, B. M. Kariuki, A. Paul, M. Eaton, S. J. A. Pope and B. D. Ward, Polym. Chem., 2023, 14, 2478 DOI: 10.1039/D3PY00209H

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